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NAME="LIBPQ-PGPASS"
>31.14. The Password File</A
></H1
><P
>   The file <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>.pgpass</TT
> in a user's home directory or the
   file referenced by <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGPASSFILE</TT
> can contain passwords to
   be used if the connection requires a password (and no password has been
   specified  otherwise). On Microsoft Windows the file is named
   <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>%APPDATA%\postgresql\pgpass.conf</TT
> (where
   <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>%APPDATA%</TT
> refers to the Application Data subdirectory in
   the user's profile).
  </P
><P
>   This file should contain lines of the following format:
</P><PRE
CLASS="SYNOPSIS"
><TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>hostname</I
></TT
>:<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>port</I
></TT
>:<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>database</I
></TT
>:<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>username</I
></TT
>:<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>password</I
></TT
></PRE
><P>
   (You can add a reminder comment to the file by copying the line above and
   preceding it with <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>#</TT
>.)
   Each of the first four fields can be a literal value, or
   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>*</TT
>, which matches anything.  The password field from
   the first line that matches the current connection parameters will be
   used.  (Therefore, put more-specific entries first when you are using
   wildcards.) If an entry needs to contain <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>:</TT
> or
   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>\</TT
>, escape this character with <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>\</TT
>.
   A host name of <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>localhost</TT
> matches both TCP (host name
   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>localhost</TT
>) and Unix domain socket (<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>pghost</TT
> empty
   or the default socket directory) connections coming from the local
   machine. In a standby server, a database name of <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>replication</TT
>
   matches streaming replication connections made to the master server.
   The <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>database</TT
> field is of limited usefulness because
   users have the same password for all databases in the same cluster.
  </P
><P
>   On Unix systems, the permissions on <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>.pgpass</TT
> must
   disallow any access to world or group; achieve this by the command
   <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>chmod 0600 ~/.pgpass</TT
>.  If the permissions are less
   strict than this, the file will be ignored.  On Microsoft Windows, it
   is assumed that the file is stored in a directory that is secure, so
   no special permissions check is made.
  </P
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